by Kathy Cretsinger
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We all need a time where we can remember the good things in life. This post of remembrances is because I drew a blank today. I could not think of anything to write. So here goes.
Growing up in East Tennessee was a peaceful time. We didn\’t have any close neighbors to play with, they either had grown children or the kids were a little on the mean side. My sister and I were doomed to play together. My dad put a rope swing in an apple tree. We would swing so hard the rope would popped, then we\’d slow down and jump out. In the summer, bees loved the apples that fell to the ground. If we hit one, we were stung, and we did not wear shoes. I can\’t imagine kids doing that today. It was so much fun.
We did not play soccer, in fact we never heard of it. We played Red Rover or Duck, Duck, Goose, those fun games. We did not have the pressure that sports gives the kids today. We had fun. We did not compete. We did not get a trophy. We played.
My earliest remembrances was in the evenings my grandparents and my family would sit in front of my grandparent\’s house and wait for the train to come by. The train went to town in the mornings and back out in the evenings. That was our entertainment. My parents and my grandparents would talk about their day, and my sister and I would run around. In the winter, we listened to the radio. No phones, no television, just family fun. Those were really the good ole days.
Today, I see kids with their cell phones on all the time. The schools do not even have swings anymore for the kids to play on. Since the pandemic, I see kids outside of schools playing, something I rarely saw before COVID. We got plenty of exercise growing up, and our minds were clearer. I believe they are missing so much by being inside all of the time. Maybe we can see some good in COVID. The children are playing outside or at least learning to play outside.
Kathy, my older brother tied a single rope high up in our huge oak tree. We’d grab onto it like it was a grapevine and run out in a circular direction until we were airborne. The swing arced around the tree and we position our feet to hit the other side of the tree and push hard to go back around the tree. It was the most fun my 6 siblings and I had.
For extra oomph, we’d tie a tire on the end and push each other to dangerous heights. What I’d give to go back to those times.
No cell phones, no internet, and a lot of times our TV would blow a picture tube in the spring and Daddy wouldn’t take it to be repaired or traded off until summer was over. Which meant…more time on the rope swing–after hoeing the garden, feeding the livestock, breaking beans, and picking blackberries, etc.
Loved your memories! I couldn’t help thinking the other day about waiting on the train. Then, we had a railroad track run beside of our house when our children were small. When our daughter died, they didn’t blow at the road. I couldn’t help thinking how considerate that was. Of course, her death was in all the papers so everyone knew. The engineer lived a few miles down the road from us, but we noticed the train didn’t blow it’s horn when it came by the house. How many kids today would enjoy watching a train go by? I’m afraid if it wasn’t on the cell phone, they wouldn’t care. So much better in persoon.